A Day in the Life of Chaos

Every so often something happens that reminds us what a thin line we balance on between life and death. As you age these reminders become more apparent as declining health speaks like an owl in the night reminding you that your body is fragile.  That life is only for a short time and that eventually it will all come to an end. The call can come at any moment.  I dread hearing the telephone ring in the middle of the night, it can never be good.  When I answer it I know something has happened and in a half dream like state I confront the news.  Recently the call came but it wasn't the middle of the night.  It happened during a simple moment when I was out with my son practicing driving.  I left my phone at home as the battery was dying.  It was only going to be a few minutes away from home anyway.   We passed by the grocery and picked up a sandwich  for dinner.  As we pulled my son's Karmann Ghia into the garage my wife was there to great us.  I thought she just wanted to he

The dreaded time has arrived.  Frankly it is one of the most dreaded moments in a parents life.  It is scarier than birth, more worrisome than marriage.  Harder than saying good bye as your child packs his bags and heads off to college.  No, all of those pale in comparison.  It is the moment when your child learns how to drive.  In America long ago we sold our soul to the devil.  In most societies driving is something optional that is eventually worked into as life and budgets permit.  People move with mass transit and trains.  America decided in the 1950's that we were not going to be this kind of society.  We were, and are a society of unchained freedom in love of the open road.  We should be the ones to decide where and when to go, not some transit planner. I wonder if the people that made those decisions ever thought about their kids? The result of our liberation from the transit ties that once bound us was ultimate captivity for the aged and the young.  This occurs whe